Taylor Catalano
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Joined: Feb 2007
Gender: Female 
Posts: 1,055
Location: Newcastle, England
Karma: 4 |  | The Roleplay Guide
« Thread Started on Sept 29, 2007, 3:36pm » | |
Okay, guys, first off, I originally wrote this for a website that didn't have a good standard of roleplaying. If you think it's a little pessimistic, that is why. I know you guys are awesome at roleplaying.
A Roleplay Guide
Hi, I’m an admin of Oceans – Please take notice of this. Since MuggleNet was my first fanfiction website, I learnt a bit about writing/grammar/etc. And since EP (another roleplay site) has a very high standard of roleplaying, I also learnt a lot there. I think through this guide I can help those who are unfamiliar with roleplaying and those who just need to refresh on what it actually is. By roleplaying correctly, we get the good, decent roleplayer’s who come from these great sites to stay, and then our site is better. Hence, A Roleplay Guide.
So what is this guide for? A rule on Oceans is that you need to roleplay correctly, by reading this guide, you will learn what I class roleplaying correctly as.
So let’s begin.
Example number 1:
Tim Ripple:
Tim lay on the ground, his heart pounded hard against his chest like a rampaging lion and his head was in pieces. A squeal erupted from his bloody mouth, running through his whole body. He shivered.
Lisa Marker:
Hi Tim, how are you?
Example number 1 over!
This is an example of how NOT to role-play… on Lisa’s behalf at least. Tim had posted a decent post, short but good enough. He roleplayed. Lisa did not.
Roleplaying is like a story. However with one difference, you have only one character. You can’t control the rest. Think of stories you have read, would they ever be just ‘Tim, how are you? I’m okay and you?’
No! Of course they wouldn’t! Despite not having speech marks, there is no description at all and she can clearly see how Tim is… who, in the situation of Lisa and Tim, would say ‘Hi, how are you?’
The correct way to do this would be:
Lisa bit the side of her lip as she looked over to the boy. She felt uneasy and afraid. What was wrong with him? Slowly and quietly, she approached him, reaching out a long, shaking arm. “Tim, are you alright?” she whispered into his ear.
You see how Lisa is feeling, there is description and it is related to the subject. Of course, it is short but it is only an example.
Example Number 2
Nick Parker:
Nick walked into the Potions lab. He felt a chill run through him and this scared him. Was he really alone? He looked all around him. Jars filled with black substances surrounded him. The desks were marked with carvings of bored children waiting for their lunch.
He decided to ignore his paranoia, and sat behind his large desk. He could see everything now. Everything… He dropped his bag on the floor and opened the wooden draw. Taking out a piece of parchment, he sighed deeply.
Dallas Cooper
Hi Sir he said how have you been? Dallas walked over to a seat and sat down.
Example Number 2 over!
So what is wrong with this one? Nick’s post is fine, I believe. However Dallas missed something very important out. And that is speech marks. Sure, he said ‘he said’, but without speech marks, it’s much harder to understand.
The correct way to do it:
“Hi, Sir.” He said to his Professor, “How have you been?” Dallas walked over to and empty seat and sat down. The chair was cold. He looked up to his Professor; he seemed quite alarmed or disturbed. He argued as to whether he should ask why. “Err, Professor, are you okay?”
Dallas could have used more description. He could have described his settings, he could have described how he felt, but overall, that’s fine.
How not to role-play:
1. Yeah, but you should have done it. I asked you to do it! How you doing over there, Jodie? Doing good?
2. * Walks over to the sink * this stinks
3. * Walks over to the sink * “This stinks!”
4. hi, u k? im gud, woz prctisin hw 2 fli lst nyt.
5. Sandy luked up. Twas dark. She sighed. “Luks dark 2nyt!”
6. Texas moaned. How dare he. He was angry. “I hate him! he did it on purpose and he knows it. Just you wait, I’m gunna get him back. I hate him. He smells. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I hate him! Let’s get him back!” Texas cried.
7. kk
8. I agree
The Above Corrected
1. The Professor moaned. She was sick of Tori’s excuses. “Yeah, but you should have done it. I asked you to do it!” She replied back. She was annoyed. Turning away from Tori, she looked over to another student. “How you doing over there, Jodie? Doing good?” She asked her. ((Again, there could be more description though))
2. Topen strutted over to the sink. As he approached, a vile, vermin stench clawed at his nostrils. He grimaced in repulsion. “Ergh, this stinks!”
3. Look at the above
4. Nancy glared at her old friend. Venom raced through her veins. “Hi, Pet-“ she spat the words viciously, empathising each word carefully “Are you okay? I’m fantastic. Was out flying last night! Was great!”
5. Sandy looked up to the midnight sky. She had never seen such a beautiful sky, the way the stars danced and the air sang was all beautiful. She had always wanted to be an astronaut, ever since she was little. She adored the mysterious blanket above. “The sky’s dark, huh.” She commented quietly, her eyes remaining high.
6. Texas growled at his image in the mirror as he clenched his fist. “How dare she? She’s only jealous! I hate her.” He yelled. The words bounced off the walls. He liked that effect; the echo was making it more clear to the world. He screamed the words again and again. “I’m going to get her back, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll get her back!” he muttered through his teeth, spraying the walls with saliva.
7. “Yeah… okay, I suppose so.” Laura agreed, “Hey, there’s a dance this Saturday, fancy going?” she asked sneakily. Images of her dress bounced in her mind. Images of her and him darted in front of her eyes… their first talk, first hug, first kiss… she shivered all over.
8. Look above.
So you see, it’s much more interesting to read. You get to know the character; you get to understand the character. Don’t judge a book by its cover; well that’s what roleplaying is all about. A character may say something, but they don’t mean it. In roleplays you get to see what’s going on in their heads, you get to empathise with them.
Roleplaying in many ways is like acting, but you’re writing. In acting, you react. You bounce off what the other person is saying – improvising for example. I don’t know what you’re going to say to me, but whatever, I’ll go with it. You bounce off each other.
If you want people who have a good standard of roleplay to come here, then you’ll have to start having a good standard yourself. Use your five senses. Touch. Hear. Sight. Taste. Smell. Use them all. What does your character see? What do they hear? What does the room smell like? What can they taste in their mouth? What are they thinking? What does the desk feel like? Use all of these to add description to your post.
Netspeak should be banned in roleplays. It doesn’t help you. It doesn’t help me. And it doesn’t help that Indian over there either whose first language is not English. This is also a rule. It’s used for MSN, not for roleplaying. It doesn’t help or attract anyone and it certainly isn’t attracting the experienced player here either.
Roleplay example:
----------------------------------------------------------
He moved slowly towards the shimmering Goblet, his face mallow and his hands shaking. Inside his hand, a piece of parchment sat, engrossed with three words;
Mecardo Jinks
Hogwarts
A shiver swept through him as if he had been drenched in freezing cold water. He was surrounded by girls and boys of all ages, each eye upon him. Some were smiling and laughing; others had mock expressions on their faces; a small amount held looks of pure hatred in its most venomest form.
Stopping at the Goblet's mouth, he looked nervously around him as he chewed on his lip.
Do I really want to do this?
What if it spits my name out?
What if I'm rejected?
Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward, his hand was outstretched. He quickly moved it over the opening and dropped it. The parchment coiled in the sparkle for a few moments and then apparated with a pop of acceptance. It was done.
----------------------------------------------------
The cold air from outsides drew to him, like a fly to light, and deepened his mood, making him shiver all over in anger. In anger, anger that flooded his lungs, trashed his mind and made his fists want to punch anything within his reach. Groaning, he rolled, his face chilled with a cold sweat and contorted with his eyes shut trying to block out the pain. It was like a monster, trapped, inside his chest was breaking lose, clawing its way out. He breathed heavy in frustration and fell into total blackness.
---------------------------------------------------
Mark looked around at his surroundings; an expression of pure amazement slotted his face. His eyes shook with fear and anxiety. ‘How could it be? How could this happen?’’
Quickly he ran towards an old, stinking door. Mould grew around the rusted metal handle and a foul smell was leaking from it. He pulled on the door, he pulled it with all the strength he could muster. His arms screamed in pain and fury as they had never screamed before, his back stabbed painfully and his vision was fazed.
With one last pull he sank deep into the blackness, cracking his head as he did. Exhaustion took over, he was defeated…
--------------------------------------------------------------
There are three roleplaying examples, each written by me. I think they’re decent enough, there is room for improvement, they were written a while ago, but they’re decent enough.
This is a form that might help you.
Place: A spooky mansion
Sight: Dark and scary. Cobwebs, alone.
Smell: old, mouldy
Touch: dusty
Taste: Dry
Hear: silence… too silent.
Feel: -------------
Try using that to write out a roleplay example. Your character has just entered the mansion. What happens? How do they feel? Use the form. You don’t have to do it, but it could help. If you do do it, post here or send them to me in PM, I’m interested as to what people put. (You don't have to use the mansion).
You can use the form for future reference, try filling it in if you’re stuck. I think it would work in stories too.
Roleplay (and story) terms:
OOC- Out of character (You are you and not your character OR Harry would never run up to Draco and give him a kiss because he realises that he loves him - not only is that OOC, it also AU and is slash)
(())- Out of character- you are not being your character, you are being you
BIC- Back in character.
It is very helpful if you use the above terms.
RP- Roleplay
RPG- Roleplay Game
Power playing- playing someone else’s character in a role-play. This is generally not allowed.
AU- Alternative Universe.
Slash - Male/Male, Female/Female
Ship- Harry/Hermione, etc
If I can think of any more relevant ones, I'll edit later.
How to see and not tell
Seeing and not telling is a very important part to writing.
A - Liam had green eyes
B - Liam’s emerald eyes shone bright against the moonlight as he stared.
Which is more interesting? A or B? Of course, if I’d spent more time on B, B would win by a long shot.
A – Tan was cold
B – Tan’s whole body shook as she felt a breeze sweep up her back, burning cold fury at her insides
B wins. Again. Of course using simple telling lines is acceptable occasionally, but I’m not seeing it occasionally here, I’m not even seeing it frequent, it’s coming at me in giant heat waves of posts.
I know role-playing’s fun, but please, TRY and do it properly.
All character names are my own, all roleplay examples (despite not all of them being that good) are my own and I created the form. NO STEALY! I hope I’ve helped some of you and encouraged you.
A spurge of inspiration
Howdy all,
On my way home from school, I remembered a vital piece of advice what one should know whilst in the realms of Roleplaying.
And that is... *DUN, DUN, DUN*
YOUR CHARACTER!!!
You must know your character inside out - yeah, that's what I mean, inside out. You must know the exact colour of their liver in HTML code! Okay... maybe that's going a tad too far. But you have to know your character!
What was the most traumatic experience for your character, what did it make them feel like and what did that emotion make them feel. What caused it? Who was there? What influenced your character into making them decisions?
The most traumatic, or life changing, experience for Mecardo would be when he was on drugs. He started off with cannabis, smoking a joint, no big deal... right?! Why did he do cannabis? Because his friends were older than him and were bad boys. They did drugs and they smoked. They drunk and had wild parties. Mecardo was influenced by them, he felt like he always had to be like them just to fit in. So he started smoking weed. But it went further than that, the influence lead to an obsession - not with the weed but with the relaxation. No more stress, no more anything. Just a fluffy cloud that kept him safe of everything, kept him at peace. He needed more, but cannabis wasn't hard enough. He needed something stronger.
And so it goes on to the fact where he's a heroin addict at the age of fifteen. Lying to those he loved, doing anything for this poison. Coming off it nearly killed him. Because he was so helpless, so desperate. ((Mecks on an old site))
Hey, if I carry on, I'd be writing a story. There is so much, so much in just one period of time to know. Not only do I need to know my character, to see how drugs effect him, but I need to know about drugs, I need to know what they do, what the dangers are, how to roll a joint, how to inject heroin. And to find this out, I'm not going to inject myself. I'm not that stupid.
I do research on websites, movies and books. If I can find all this out without injuring myself, well then there is no excuse to not know about your character.
That was only about a year, a year and a half of Mecardo's life. A character is so complex, they are like humans - they are humans.
Know them like you know yourself, if you do that, then you can do anything with them. This isn't only roleplaying, this is writing stories, poems, making movies, acting, everything. It's so important to know your character. To know every event, to understand every event, to know what goes on in their head. It's unbelievably important.
Character sheets are helpful. But creating a character on a sheet isn't what makes a character. Before you do a character sheet, write on some paper information.
'Mecardo Jinks is 18 years old, has two brothers, one named Aris, one named Romeo. He lives in Newcastle. When he was younger, close uncle was unmasked as death eater - effected Mecardo a lot, made him quite wary. 15 he was a junkie, clean by 16, 16 and a half. ETC'
You know, jot notes down. When I first made Mecks, I didn't know all this about him, but he's been with me for about six months ((Now a year and a half)). I know him now; he's like a brother or a best friend. He's part of me. Let your characters be part of you. You can't know all of this at first, let them grow with you, but before you create them, know them too. Know the facts, then the personality will grow.
This Roleplay Guide was Created by Melissa, an admin of Ocean View Academy.
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